Like a set decorator on a Hollywood movie, home stager Yvonne Marquez creates inviting, prop-filled scenes, only hers are to sell San Diego houses. She’ll turn a tired master bath into a spa-style retreat, then place a bottle of Champagne and two glass flutes near the tub. (No wonder one homeowner’s acrylic tropical fish toilet seat didn’t stand a chance.) And to trigger a warm-and-fuzzy buyer impulse, Marquez will prepare a backyard for a friendly barbecue, complete with mugs of fake foaming beer.

Marquez can quickly transform a drab, dated den into an enticing media room that features modern furniture, buckets of (resin-covered) popcorn, comfy throws and a faux flat-screen TV. Although she advises sellers to hide all personal photos, Marquez may display a few “family” snapshots of ski and beach vacations — only these smiling folks are cut out of magazines.

“It’s all to give buyers the feeling that they can picture themselves in the house,” said Marquez, owner of Consider It Staged.

Everything Creative Designs had these elements to work with in staging a master bedroom in an occupied home.

The home staging company used existing furniture and added bedding, lamps, pillows and art for this pleasing effect.

With the real estate market heating up, San Diego home stagers say “fluffed” lairs are selling faster, bringing bigger bucks and at times snagging multiple offers. Houses that have been staged sell on average 73 percent quicker than un-staged ones, according to the Real Estate Staging Association. And because of HGTV shows such as “Staged to Perfection,” more consumers may let pros determine if their beloved clown paintings and worn La-Z-Boy recliner will subliminally scare off home shoppers (odds are yes).

“Buyers decide within six seconds either they like a house or not,” said home stager Carol Kaplan, founder of Everything Creative. Only 10 percent can envision a dwelling’s potential, so buyers “need to see the ‘wow’ factor right away.”

De-cluttering is the first step (everything from toothbrushes to cat litter boxes needs to be out of sight). After that, home stylists may rearrange or remove the sellers’ furniture, change wall colors and haul in sofas, dressers, tables, pillows, lamps, linens, artwork, vases, candles and more from their staging company’s warehouse.

As a lighter, cheaper alternative, there’s now cardboard furniture specifically made for home staging. When she arrives at her client’s house, Liliane Dickinson, owner of Belle Maison Home Staging, assembles collapsible corrugated living room sets and beds she bought online from NextStage Furniture — they’re draped with high-quality slipcovers, claim to hold 1,000 pounds and store flat.

“I can carry a couch totally by myself in the bag it comes in,” said Dickinson, who uses real furniture as accents. She placed the well-appointed phony stuff in a Carmel Valley home that recently sold within days for $1.3 million.

Before any redesign, sellers must agree to temporarily stash prized possessions. Kaplan kindly gave the boot to a 6-foot-tall elephant statue in one residence; in another she insisted a lion-skin rug with attached head had to go. “Sometimes, you have to be a psychologist when it comes to sentimental items. I just said, ‘I want this area to be more user-friendly.’ ”

The goal is to make a house look like a model home to attract the broadest pool of purchasers. “People don’t need to know your religion or your eccentricities. They don’t want to see your Smurfs’ collection,” said Audra Slinkey, owner of San Diego-based Home Staging Resource, which trains and accredits decorators worldwide.